Sunday, October 02, 2011

100 Million Degrees

I have been reading a fairly dense history of U.S. foreign policy over the last two weeks. Ahead of each chapter, there is a quote, which relates to the topic of the chapter, but may not be found within. The lead quote for the chapter on the Pacific front of WWII was powerful. It paints a picture that is impossible to imagine. 
When the first atomic bomb went off, at Alamorgordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, the temperature at Ground Zero was 100 million degrees Fahrenheit, three times hotter than the interior of the sun and ten thousand times the heat on its surface. All life, plant and animal, within a mile radius of Ground Zero simply vanished. General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, turned to his deputy and said, "The war's over. One of two of these things and Japan will be finished."
- Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, Enola Gay

1 comment:

Rachel L. said...

That's pretty incredible. I loved those quotes in there. When you play (not that I have...) Call of Duty there are quotes like that every time you die. I'm glad accounts like that are still somewhere. They are so important.